I belive (according to Radio 4 recently) that modern steam tech using up to the minute materials and new combustion and bearing technology is making efficient steam traction for some overseas customers.

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KBJ - get your arse down the 'Boris - Way to Go' thread. Your pin up boy is taking a pasting.

Can't see why they've gone for apple green. For most of their lives the A1s were Brunswick green, like this:

When I was younger I knew a bloke who ran a general store and Hornby model shop. Or, rather, his wife took care of the groceries whilst he did the interesting bit! On the wall of the shop was a picture of the engine pictured above - 60121 Silurian - on which he had been fireman in the early 1960s. He told me enough stories to get me interested and he always said it was sad that all of the class had 'gone to make saucepans' - which is one reason I'm so pleased to see 60163 ready to run.

<e2a> The wikipedia article on 60163 seems to suggest they've got the approval they were after to run at 90mph too!

I was also going to post that link.
I have no idea what the colour should be, but the beauty is the guys hand painting it.
It's wonderful and I just have to see it and hear it and travel behind it.
True engineering Art

That sounds good to me! It'd be good to see you. St Pancras is well worth a look too - it's magnificent.

There's no info yet on the Main Line Steam site on timings, but if it's got to come all the way from Darlington it won't arrive too early in the day.

Incidentally, did anyone see the programme about Tornado that was on BBC4 over Christmas? It rejoiced in the awful title 'Absolutely Chuffed,' but it was rather good. It's off iPlayer now, unfortunately, but doubtless it'll be somewhere on the web...

I'm sure that in East Germany they did some work with pulverised coal so thay had some sort of fuel injction system along the length of the firebox...... I read that in some railway mag in the dim and distant past.... I must have a dig

I'm sure that in East Germany they did some work with pulverised coal so thay had some sort of fuel injction system along the length of the firebox...... I read that in some railway mag in the dim and distant past.... I must have a dig

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Mechanical stoking was common practice in a lot of countries for a long time. The reason it was never seriously introduced here was that British trains were relatively small and rarely above the capacity of one man to fire by hand. Meanwhile, mechanical stoking was less efficient than skilful hand firing and generated more and dirtier smoke, which didn't go down well in crowded British cities. Therefore, British locos were almost invariably hand-fired. In the US, though, there was a rule that any engine with a grate bigger than a certain size had to have a mechanical stoker, and they were used in many parts of Europe and Asia as well. <e2a> IIRC it was usually small-coal rather than pulverised coal, though.

Re. the 5AT project that teuchter links to, I think it's interesting and I'd like to think that the publicity around Tornado will give it a boost. David Wardale is an interesting bloke, who did a lot of work modifying and improving steam engines in South Africa and China after steam finished in Europe. If anyone can make it work, he can, although uit's as well to point out that no-one is suggesting the 5AT is any more than a one-off: it's just a higher-performance loco designed to operate charter trains more easily under modern conditions than original locos. I've yet to find a copy of his book about the Red Devil at an affordable price, though...